Info 280: ICT for Development: Context, Strategies and Impacts

Tuesday and Thursday 3:30pm - 5:00pm
110 South Hall

Instructors:	Graduate Student Instructor:
Prof. AnnaLee Saxenian	Mahad Ibrahim
Prof. Heather Horst

Readings:

Course Reader

Easterly, William. "The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists´ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics", Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.

Horst, Heather A. and Daniel Miller. "The Cell Phone: An Antropology of Communication", Oxford and New York: Berg, 2006.

Krugman, Paul. "Development, Geography, and Economic Theory", Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.

Module 1: Theory

January 16, 2007: Course Introduction

January 18, 2007: Technology and Development: Background

Basu, Kaushik. "On the Goals of Development" and "Comments" by Paul Streeten and Michael Liption in Gerald M. Meier and Joseph E. Stiglitz, eds. Frontiers of Development Economics: The Future in Perspective (Washington, DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2001) pp. 66-101 [In Reader]

Jasanoff, Sheila. "New Modernities: Reimagining Science, Technology, and Development". Environmental Values. Vol. 11, No. 3 (2002), pp. 253-276 Link to Reading

Marx, Leo. "Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept". Social Research, Vol 64. N. 3 (Fall 1997) [Link to Reading]

Kammen, Daniel and Michael Dove. "The Virtues of Mundane Science". Environment. Vol. 39. N. 6 (July/August 1997) [Link to Reading]

January 23, 2007: The Postwar project: Theories of Economic Development

Hirschmann, Albert O. "The Rise and Decline of Development Economics" in Essays in Trespassing: Economics to politics and beyond, Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 1-24 [In Reader]

Krugman, Paul. Chapters 1 ("The Fall and Rise of Development Economics") and 3 ("Models and Metaphors") in Development, Geography, and Economic Theory, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995

Link to Lecture Slides

January 25, 2007: The Postwar project: Economic Development in practice

Dreze, Jean and Amartya Sen "India and China" in India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1995. pp. 57-86 [In Reader]

Easterly,William. The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001

Link to Lecture Slides

January 30, 2007: Discussion/Activity Section

February 1, 2007: Discussion/Activity Section

February 6, 2007: Technology and Development: Current Trends

Prahalad, C.K., and Allen Hammond. "Serving the World's Poor, Profitably." Harvard Business Review. 80.9 (2002): 48-57. [Link to Reading]

Karnani, Aneel G., "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: A Mirage" (November 2006). Ross School of Business Paper No. 1035 [Link to Reading]

Keniston, Kenneth. “Grassroots ICT Projects in India: Some Preliminary Hypotheses” ACSI Journal of Management Vol 31 (1&2) 2002 [In Reader]

Sein, M. and Harindranath G. 2004. "Conceptualizing the ICT Artifact: Toward Understanding the Role of ICT in National Development" Information Society Vol.20.1: 15-25, 2004 [Link to Reading]

G. Pascal Zachary "The African Hacker" IEEE Spectrum August 2005: 25-29 [Link to Reading]

Brewer E. et al 2005. "Case for Technology for Developing Regions" IEEE Computer June 2005 [Link to Reading]

Link to Lecture Slides

February 8, 2007: Discussion/Activity Session

February 13, 2007: What is the Information Society?

Castells, Manuel et. al. Chapter 8 and "Conclusion: The Mobile Network Society" in Mobile communications and society: A global perspective Cambridge Ma: MIT Press, 2007. [In Reader]

Crawford, S. "The Origin and Development of a Concept: The Information Society." Bulletin of the Medical Library Association. 71.4 (1983): 380-86. [Link to Reading]

Slater, Don and Janet Kwami. "Embeddedness and escape: Internet and mobile use as poverty reduction strategies in Ghana". ISRG Working Paper 4, June 2005. [Link to Reading]

Webster, Frank. Introduction and Chapter 2 in Theories of the Information Society, 3rd ed., New York: Routledge, 2006. [In Reader]

Link to Lecture Slides

February 15, 2007: Issues in the Digital Divide

Cartier, Carolyn, Manuel Castells, and Jack Linchuan Qiu. "The Information Have-Less: Inequality, Mobility, and Translocal Networks in Chinese Cities." Studies in Comparative International Development. 40.2 (2005): 9-34. [Link to Reading]

National Telecommunications and Information Administration. "Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the Have Nots in Rural and Urban America [Online]." 1995. [Link to Reading]

Warschauer, Mark. "Reconceptualizing the Digital Divide." First Monday. 7.7 (2002) [Link to Reading]

Zachary, G Pascal. "Ghana's digital dilemma". Technology Review. 105.6, pp.66-74 (Jul/Aug 2002) [Link to Reading]

Link to Lecture Slides

February 20, 2007: Literacies

Kothari, B., A. Pandey and A. Chudgar. 2004. “Reading out of the ‘Idiot Box’: Same-Language Subtitling on Television in India” Information Technology and International Development Vol 2: 23-44. [Link to Reading]

Livingstone, S. (2004) Media literacy and the challenge of new information and communication technologies. Communication Review, 7: 3-14. [Link to Reading]

Recommened Reading:

Abu-Lughod, Lila. “Bedouins, Cassettes and Technologies of Public Culture.” Middle East Report. 159 (1989): 7-11+47. [Link to Reading]

Sakr, Naomi. “Satellite Television and Development in the Middle East.” Middle East Report. No. 201 (1999): 6-8. [Link to Reading]

Link to Lecture Slides

February 22, 2007: Discussion/Activity Section

Module 2: Technology for Developing Regions

February 27, 2007: Telecommunications and Network Infrastructure

DAKNET
[Link to Reading]
[Link to Case]

Morse, Gardiner. "Bottom Up Economics: A Conversation with Iqbal Quadir" Harvard Business Review August 2003 [Link to Reading]

Skuse, Andrew. 2005. "Enlivened Objects: The Social Life, Death and Rebirth of Radio as Commodity in Afghanistan" Journal of Material Culture 10 (2): 123-127 [Link to Reading]

Recommended reading

Village Phone Replication Manual [Link to Manual]

Link to Lecture Slides

March 1, 2007: Low Cost Computing Devices

Pal, Joyojeet and Rabin Patra et. al. "SplitComp: An alternative to the one device per child model of computing for developing regions". under review at the WWW 2007 developing regions track. [Link to Reading]

Fonseca, R. and Pal, J. Computing Devices for All: Creating and Selling the Low-Cost Computer. 1st International Conference on ICT and Development, UC Berkeley, May 2006 [Link to Reading]

Parikh, T, et al. 2003. Design Studies for a Financial Management System for Micro-credit groups in Rural India. ACM Conference on Universal Usability. [Link to Reading]

Module 3: The Cell Phone in Jamaica

March 6, 2007: Case Study of a New Communication Technology (Part 1)

Horst, Heather A and Daniel Miller. 2006. The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication. Oxford and NY: Berg Press (Chapter 1-Chapter 5, pp. 1-102)

March 8, 2007: Case Study of a New Communication Technology (Part 2)

Cell Phone Interviews In Class Exercise

March 13, 2007: Case Study of a New Communication Technology (Part 3)

Horst, Heather A and Daniel Miller. 2006. The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication. Oxford and NY: Berg Press (Chapters 6-8, pp. 103-183)

March 15, 2007: Proposals

Project Outline Exchange Exercise

Module 4: Topics in ICT for Development

March 20, 2007: Shared Access Computing

Pal, Joyojeet, Sergiu Nedevschi, et al. “A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Shared Access Village Computing Initiatives: The Case of Akshaya.” Policy Options and Models for Bridging Digital Divides. (2005) [In Reader]

Kumar, R. “eChoupals: A Study on the Financial Sustainability of Village Internet Centers in Rural Madhya Pradesh” Information Technologies and International Development. Vol. 2:1. Spring 2004 [Link to Reading]

Salvador, Tony, John W. Sherry, and Alvaro E. Urrutia. “Less Cyber, More I: Enhancing Existing Small Businesses Across the Digital Divide With ICTs.” Information Technology for Development. 11.1 (2005): 77-95. [Link to Reading]

March 22, 2007: E-Governance

To be announced

April 3, 2007: Healthcare

Bellows, B., Aman Bhandari, et al. (2007). Peering into the black box: A holistic framework for innovating at the intersection of ICT and Health. In M. Gasco-Hernandez, F. Equiza-Lopez, & M. Acevedo-Ruiz (Eds.), Information Communication Technologies and Human Development: Opportunities and Challenges. Idea Group Publishing. [In Reader]

Sachs, J., et al. (2002). Report of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development. Geneva: World Health Organization. [Link to Report Website]

Li, H.K. “Telemedicine and Ophthalmology” Survey of Ophthalmology Vol. 44: 1, Jul 1999 [Link to Reading]

Casas, Cyntha and William LaJoie, “Voxiva: Case Study” [Link to Case]

April 5, 2007: Discussion/Activity Section

April 10, 2007: Education: From Access to Participation

Attewell P. and Battle J. 1999 “Home Computers and School Performance” Information Society Vol. 15.1 [Link to Reading]

Livingstone, Sonia and Magdalena Bober. 2004. Taking up Opportunities Online: Children’s Uses of the Internet for Education, Communication and Participation. E-learning Vol. 1 (3): 395-419. [Link to Reading]

Seiter, Ellen. 2005. The Internet Playground: Children’s Access, Edutainment and Mis-education. Peter Lang [excerpts in Reader]

April 12, 2007: Discussion/Activity Section

April 17, 2007: Entrepreneurship

Chowdhury, Shyamal. “Investments in ICT-capital and Economic Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in East Africa.” Journal of International Development. 18, 533–552 (2006) [Link to Reading]

Della-Giusta, Marina and Christine Phillips. “Women Entrepreneurs in the Gambia: Challenges and Opportunities.” Journal of International Development. 18, 1051–1064 (2006) [Link to Reading]

Nielsen, Louise and Claire Heffernan. “New Tools to Connect People and Places: The Impact of ICTs on Learning Among Resource Poor Farmers in Bolivia.” Journal of International Development. 18, 889–900. (2006) [Link to Reading]

April 19, 2007: Discussion/Activity Section

Handout: Budget Study Exercise (handout and describe assignment)

April 24, 2007: Connectivity and Livelihood: Movement, Circulation and Redistribution

Benitez, Jose Luis. 2006. Transnational dimensions of the digital divide among Salvadoran immigrants in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Global Networks 6(2): 181-199 [Link to Reading]

Du Toit, Andries, Andrew Skuse and Thomas Cousins. "The Political Economy of Social Capital: Chronic Poverty, Remoteness and Gender in the Rural Eastern Cape". [Link to Reading]

Riak Akuei, Stephanie. 2005. Remittances as unforeseen burdens: the livelihoods and social obligations of Sudanese refugees. Global Migration Perspectives No. 18. January 2005. [Link to Reading]

Saxenian, A. 2006. IT Enclaves in India. The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. [In Reader]

April 26, 2007: Discussion/Activity Section

In class: Budget Study Analysis

May 1, 2007: Future of ICT4D

Balaji, P. and Keniston, K. “Tentative Conclusions” Information and Communications Technologies for Development: A Comparative Analysis of Impacts and Costs [In Reader]

Amartya K. Sen “What is Development About?” in Meier and Stiglitz, eds. Op cit pp. 506-513 [In Reader]

Charles F. Sabel and Sanjay G. Reddy “Learning to Learn: Undoing the Gordian Knot of Development Today” [In Reader]